What does this passage teach me about the character of God? It teaches me that He is to be feared, but also that He is to be loved...
It has often been difficult for me to understand how God can be one of judgment and wrath while also being a god of love. In my mind He could only be one or the other, not both at the same time. And yet He is God and cannot be limited by our own logic and reasoning. And here is a very beautiful passage that shows both sides of God's character, intertwined and without contradiction.
As I read these verses, I realize that I used to be just like the Assyrians--at the mercy of God's anger. Indeed, by nature, I was a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3). But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which He loved me, made me alive with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5)!
One must be careful to not just dwell on only one side of God. Rather, we need to take both sides togther. For "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7, ESV), and we have been commanded to "love the LORD [our] God with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul and with all [our] strength and with all [our]mind" (Luke 10:27, ESV).
